The present invention relates to cooling means for internal combustion engines and, more particularly, relates to an apparatus in which an oil reservoir is supplied to various portions of an internal combustion engine through usage of an oil pump which employed for purposes of pressurized distribution of the oil throughout the respective portions of the internal combustion engine.
The prior art in the instant area has been characterized by such arrangements which are, schematically, illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In FIG. 1, representing a first example of the prior art, an oil cooler (d) is connected on the delivery side of an oil pump (b) which in turn is connected to an oil reservoir (a) which is positioned on the delivery side of an internal combustion engine (c). The arrangement of FIG. 1 is limiting in that the cooler (d) acts as a comparatively large load upon the pump (b). Consequently the pump B is required to deliver a comparatively large pressure with, resultingly, a loss in power to the overall system.
The second prior art arrangement, shown in FIG. 2, disposes the oil cooler (d) in parallel with the internal combustion engine (c) on the delivery side of the oil pump (b) which, in turn, is connected to an oil reservoir (a). This arrangement has been found to be inadequate in that the oil cooled by the cooler (d) is returned to the oil reservoir (a) without being used in the engine (c). Consequently a loss in efficiency is unavoidable.
Accordingly, the present invention may be viewed as a response to the shortcomings in the prior art as set forth in the examples of FIGS. 1 and 2 above.